


Sharpen your knife

by Port_in_a_Storm



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Boys In Love, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Happy Ending, Homophobic Language, M/M, Supportive Aaron, Vulnerable Robert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-05
Updated: 2016-08-05
Packaged: 2018-07-29 12:30:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7684573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Port_in_a_Storm/pseuds/Port_in_a_Storm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A client turns down a deal when he finds out that Robert is gay. Far from becoming angry or spiteful, Robert becomes quiet and shows a vulnerable side that Aaron has never seen before.</p><p>Based on a tumblr prompt</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sharpen your knife

**Author's Note:**

> Hello beautiful people! Adding to the plethora of fics is this, based on an anon prompt: Maybe, Robert is closing a major deal at the scrap yard, and the client finds out he's gay, and is basically homophobic and then doesn't sign, and Aaron sees this. But Robert isn't his usual self with the scathing remarks and threatening to sue the company, instead he accepts it and is really quiet, Aaron is really surprised and Rob tells him this isn't the first time. And Aaron then feels bad about outing Rob maybe? 
> 
> Just wanted to reiterate the homophobic language in this fic, in case some people find it upsetting.
> 
> Also, I likely won't be posting anything until Sunday as I have a busy, full day tomorrow. If I can though, I'll try and get something written tonight! Happy reading, lovelies!

Robert watched the man opposite him read through the contract. He resisted the urge to fidget: not only would it seem unprofessional, but that was a move that he had got annoyed with by Aaron many times. He smiled, thinking of telling his boyfriend that the contract for Home James was almost signed. It was pretty much a done deal when Shaun Fletcher offered to meet in the pub rather than the scrapyard. It showed that he clearly wanted something to celebrate. Later, he and Aaron would have a celebration of their own: a restaurant, beer (that fancy beer that they had discovered whilst in Greece once and both had tried to find ever since but which cost a fortune), food that Aaron would call pretentious but which he’d roll his eyes in pleasure at as soon as it touched his mouth. And of course, coming home and spending the rest of the night in their bedroom.  
Nothing could be better.

‘Well, everything looks perfectly in order,’ Fletcher said, drawing Robert out of his day dream of Aaron. ‘I’d be more than happy to sign this.’

‘Fantastic. I’ll get you a pen, and maybe another drink?’

The man took a cursory glance at his watch. ‘Uhh… yes, go on then. I did tell the Missus that I’d be a little late today.’

Robert smiled and picked up their empty pint glasses, but not before dropping his pen in front of Fletcher. At the bar, Chas nodded to the client, who was looking over the contract again, pen in hand. ‘Deal going on, is it?’

‘Yeah. He’s just about to sign. Nicola said she’s been trying to crack this guy for weeks.’

‘No one can resist your charm, eh?’ she said it sarcastically, but with a wink. He and Chas had come such a long way from when he and Aaron first got together. She was a lot more welcoming towards him, and didn’t run hot and cold quite so much as she had done. ‘Two pints, is it?’

‘Please. You haven’t seen Aaron, have you?’

‘Not since dinner—oh, speak of the devil.’

Robert turned just in time to see his boyfriend’s confused frown directed at his Mum. He smiled and grabbed him around the waist. ‘Hi,’ he said, before kissing him firmly. ‘I’m just about to sign a deal.’

‘Oh yeah?’ Aaron rolled his eyes fondly. ‘Trust you to get turned on by money!’

Robert leaned in and growled in Aaron’s ear, ‘I get turned on by the thought of you lying naked in money.’ He kissed Aaron’s grinning mouth again. ‘Talk to you later, yeah?’

He picked up the pints and went back to the table, taking his seat in front of Fletcher again. ‘So, where were we?’ When he didn’t answer, Robert looked at the client. He had a face like thunder. ‘Shaun? Is everything alright?’ he asked with a nervous chuckle.

‘Is that your—?’ he left the sentence hanging.

Robert frowned. ‘He’s my boyfriend, yes.’

Fletcher’s nostrils flared and he turned red. ‘Then I’m sorry to say that I will not be signing your contract, Mr Sugden.’

‘What? But—why? I thought everything was fine,’ he gestured at the paper.

‘I do not go into business with people like you,’ he said calmly.

‘People like me?’

‘Homosexuals. I do not want my business tainted with that kind of reputation.’ He stood up and Robert let him. He stood over him, spitting his vile words, and Robert let him. ‘If your business must get in touch with me again, Mr Sugden, I would appreciate if it wasn’t by _you_. Though I will not be signing any contracts with a business which has such partners.’ 

‘Oi!’ The shout came from Chas who had heard every word as, it seemed, did Aaron. ‘You can’t speak to people like that!’ But Fletcher was already out the door. 

Robert swallowed around a lump in his throat. He felt his eyes burning, felt his entire face enflamed with embarrassment. _‘Tainted’_ whispered in his ear over and over again until he stood up and fled to the back room. He slumped onto the sofa, covering his face with his hands. _’Tainted’_.

‘Rob?’ He didn’t look up as Aaron entered the room. Couldn’t face him. Felt too ashamed. ‘Robert?’ Calloused hands stroked his hair, and that was enough to undo him. He gasped into his hands, ashamed at his tears, ashamed of his burning face, ashamed of his silence. Aaron cradled him to his chest and shushed him gently. ‘Don’t worry about that idiot,’ he said. ‘He can stick his small minded views.’

It was enough. Having Aaron with him was enough. ‘God,’ he said, pulling back and wiping at his face. ‘I don’t know why I let it get to me like that.’

‘It’s hard,’ Aaron said. ‘People like that… they just want to make you feel small. Or unworthy or whatever.’ He stroked Robert’s cheek. 

‘Yeah, well, I shouldn’t have let it.’ He looked at Aaron. ‘It’s not the first time that it’s happened to me.’

Aaron’s eyebrows rose. ‘What? What do you mean?’

‘Facing people like that. It’s not the first time it’s happened.’ He saw the look in Aaron’s eyes and knew that he wouldn’t get away with not telling him about it. He breathed deeply. ‘I… before I even started working for the Whites, I… well, I was young and… I don’t know. Word must have got round.’ 

‘Word? What word?’

****

_Robert was fresh and new to this kind of work. He had only ever known farm animals, cars and ovens before. And working in a huge corporate business like this was so different to what the Kings had set up in Emmerdale. But it also meant that he didn’t know how ruthless it could be._

_He had been given his first client meeting just three weeks after he’d started. Anthony Willis, his supervisor, had seen promise in him, he’d said. Robert had a lot to give, he’d said. And it helped, Robert thought, that Anthony fancied him something rotten. He would never act on it (not this soon after scoring the position that he had anyway) but it was good to know that it was there. Even if just for fun. He knew that he had made other workers there envious, but Robert wasn’t there to make friends. He had spent too long in a tiny flat without heating, no hot water for months, and a too thin mattress and duvet. He wanted to make his money and live comfortably for a change._

_Midway through the interview, whilst flipping through the contracts, the client paused and turned first white with horror, then red with anger._

_‘Is this supposed to be a joke?!’ he’d roared. ‘I do not take kindly to this, Mr Sugden!’_

_Robert flailed for an answer when the man threw a photograph in front of him. In it, Robert was on his knees, in a dark, dingy alleyway, a man was in front of him with head thrown back in pleasure. Robert felt sick to his stomach._

_‘I will not be seen making deals with the likes of you!’ the client yelled, spit dripping from his lips. ‘This is an outrage! I will not be talked to by one of you queer boys!’ Robert flinched at every word, more so when he realised that people around them were listening in and already beginning to talk._

_He tried to reason with the man, talk calmly to him, but nothing worked. He continued to spit his vile words, and Robert could do nothing but sit there and take it. Even where his father was concerned, he had never faced that kind of hate before._

****

‘Turned out, one of the blokes wanted me gone. He knew the client was homophobic and set up the photograph.’ He wiped his face, tired from replaying the moment in his life he would have sooner forgotten; sooner left it behind in the offices of Leeds where it belonged. ‘Everyone found out about it, though, and… I just couldn’t face staying there knowing that I was on my knees for some bloke I barely knew.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me any of this?’ Aaron asked after a moment of stunned silence.

Robert shrugged. ‘There was never a need to. It’s in the past. I was determined to leave it there.’

‘Yeah, but that kind of thing affects people!’ He stood suddenly and started pacing. ‘God! And I outed you!’

‘Because you were angry with me!’

‘That’s no excuse! I shouldn’t have done it, I always felt so badly for it, but now… now that I know that. God, I’m so sorry, Robert.’

‘No. Hey, it doesn’t matter. Okay? Completely different circumstances.’

‘How can you be okay with it? With what happened to you?’

‘What, when I was younger?’ He shrugged again, though he was shaking inwardly at the feelings that came rushing back. ‘It’s in the past, Aaron. I had to learn to let it go. And, I know before you say it: it’s not that simple. But I didn’t have anyone to turn to, no one who would listen to my… my woes. So I had to just let it go.’

Aaron shook his head and gripped Robert’s hand tightly. ‘Not any more, alright? I’m here for you, Rob. I don’t want you hiding that kind of stuff from me.’

Robert nodded. ‘Okay. But honestly, Baby, it was just one time, and it only came back to me because of what happened tonight with that tosser.’ He got a text from Nicola as he was talking. ‘Oh god, she’s probably gonna tear me a new one for letting Fletcher go.’ He read the text and his eyes started to fill with tears.

‘What?’ Aaron demanded with nothing but worry in his voice. Robert handed the phone to him. _‘Chas told me about Fletcher’,_ Nicola had written. _‘We don’t need that kind of idiot working with us.’_ Aaron smiled. 

‘See,’ he said. ‘People care about you. You don’t have to keep that kind of thing to yourself, Rob. There’s a lot of wankers out there just waiting to judge us, but don’t let them get to you.’

‘Just me and you, eh?’ Robert said. ‘Screw what everyone else thinks.’

**Author's Note:**

> Come have a nosy on tumblr!: [Port in a Storm](http://www.portinastorm.tumblr.com)
> 
> Title is a line from 'Take me to church' by Hozier


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